Trump Administration SOGI Data Collection Restrictions
Okay, hear’s a breakdown of the changes made to three federal surveys (NHIS, MCBS, and NCVS) based on the provided text, driven by Executive Order 14168. I’ll summarize the key modifications for each survey:
Overall context:
The Trump governance, through EO 14168, aimed to de-emphasize “gender ideology” and promote a binary view of sex.This resulted in changes to federal surveys to remove questions related to gender identity and, in certain specific cases, modify questions about sexual orientation and sex. Agencies specifically cited the EO when requesting these changes.
1. National Health Interview Survey (NHIS)
* Gender Identity: The question asking about a respondent’s gender identity was removed.
* Follow-up to “Something Else”: The follow-up question allowing respondents who selected ”something else” to describe their gender identity in their own words was removed.
* Sexual Orientation: No changes were made to the sexual orientation question.
2. Medical Expenditure Panel Survey – Behavioral Health (MCBS)
* Gender Identity: The question asking about a respondent’s gender identity was removed.
* Sex Assigned at Birth: The question asking about sex assigned at birth (from the birth certificate) was removed and replaced with a question simply asking about the respondent’s sex (without further clarification).
* Sexual Orientation - “Something Else”: The response option “something else” was removed from the question about sexual orientation.
* Follow-up to “Something Else” (Sexual Orientation): The follow-up question allowing respondents who selected “something else” to describe their sexual orientation in their own words was removed.
* Healthcare Discrimination: A question about experiences with unfair or insensitive treatment from healthcare providers, based on sexual orientation and gender/gender identity, was removed.
3. National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS)
* Gender Identity: The question asking about a respondent’s gender identity was removed.
* Sex Assigned at Birth: The question asking about sex assigned at birth (from the birth certificate) was removed.
* Clarification of Gender Identity: A question seeking clarification when sex assigned at birth and gender identity didn’t align was removed.
* Bias in Victimization: A question related to whether respondents believed victimization was due to prejudice was temporarily paused and then reinstated.
In essence, the changes consistently involved removing direct inquiries about gender identity and, in some cases, narrowing the scope of questions related to sexual orientation and sex, aligning with the administration’s stated goal of focusing on a binary biological understanding of sex.